Grow Your Own Magazine

cottage garden · #**2871** (**permalink**) 26-01-2008, 10:08 PM

Cut my autumn raspberries down to the ground. Weeded at little around them. Pulled up all my canes from beans, sweet peas etc and tidied around. Cleaned and washed the greenhouse and pruned the grapevine in there.

Hazel at the Hill · #**2872** (**permalink**) 26-01-2008, 10:57 PM

Gorgeous day at the Hill today!

Re-dug over one half of the new legumes bed - dug in the green manure not very efficiently about 3 weeks ago, but made a much better job of it this time.
Dug out all the remaining roots in one half of the old roots bed - i.e. beetroot, carrot-fly carrots (straight on the compost ), celery, salsify and a couple of parsnip
as the old roots bed will be potatoes this year, I gave it a right good layer of horse muck & straw
dug the last of the leeks, leaving one magnificent specimen to go to seed to collect for next year.
tackled the vile job of pruning the gooseberries. Swore a lot.

Came home and sowed the crimson flowered broad beans in pots, and have boiled all the beetroot ready for peeling and using to make beetroot chutney tomorrow.

A good day, even though I now feel about ninety, and that's after a hot bath and with a glass of....

Boggle · #**2873** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 08:04 AM

Planted a tray of Dorset Naga seeds and put them in the airing cupboard. Just touched one of the seeds on my tongue before planting - ouch

seasprout · #**2874** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 09:27 AM

[quote=Hazel at the Hill;167924]Gorgeous day at the Hill today!
Came home and sowed the crimson flowered broad beans in pots,
[quote]

Ho.. if your sowing yours now then i will do mine. Not grown them before.

Flummery · #**2875** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 05:58 PM

Decided to rejuvenate my herb garden which I started when we moved here - 8 years ago. The sage was like a tree, in spite of having a couple of very close haircuts in the past. The rosemary was long and gangly, so I bought 3 well grown herbs for £5 at Wilko's - sage, rosemary and oregano - and did the deed today. Much tidier and you can now see the snowdrops and the nose ends of the daffs - I like a few pretties in with my herbs.

PS updated me blog!

Marthaclematis · #**2876** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 06:15 PM

I went to garden centre. Bought a bucket thing, compost and some seed potatoes to grow in it. Bought some flowering bulbs to plant in spring. Hoed my bed, cut back some lavender and planted an evergreen which was pot-bound. Can't seem to go there without spending over fifty quid. Must stay away!

JanieB · #**2877** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 06:25 PM

After spending (too much) time on the vine waiting for the shops to open, I went and bought a kettle, four enamel mugs, parafin and two elephant tubs - all for the lottie.

Went to lottie, measured and did an inventory of what's been left there, took piccies, talked to the Allotment Association Secretary.

Went and had a pint (lottying's thirsty work even if you haven't dug anything)

. Dropped into two mates on the way home and had cupsa tea. Desperate for loo by then.

Now sat sitting here watching 'Enders, glass of wine, waiting for dinner to cook.

Lovely, happy day - sigh

.

Wasn't/isn't the weather gorgeous.

shirlthegirl43 · #**2878** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 07:00 PM

Dropped mk1 son to work and decided to go wander round Wilkinsons with my birthday money from my Dad. Got me a fig, lemon and orange tree, new gardening gloves, stainless steel trowel, some sweetpea seeds and gravel trays and still got 20 quid left!!

Sowed some 125 sweetpea seeds, and 10 calabrese autumn variety and some yellow italian sweet peppers.

gardenplot · #**2879** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 07:26 PM

I’m well happy with today, planted seeds in greenhouse - Cauliflower 'All Year Round,'-
Cabbage 'Greyhound,'- Leek 'Musselburgh,' & Parsnips this morning.

Only sow ½ dozen of each seeds to give it a trial run and will feedback on the outcome? When or if any progress

Went for a pub lunch had a few bottles of wine just got back home and now going to chill out for the rest of the evening with some more wine Cheers everyone

xx .
P.S good idea 2ltr pop bottles to store in greenhouse temperature for watering new seeds and young plants. Thankyou Jaxom a good tip.

royboy · #**2880** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 07:44 PM

Today I started to dig My first 4ft X 20ft bed. Put plenty of horse poo in. Think that will be for my potatoes. With it being my first year, I didnt know weather to put in any organic matter in the other 3 as shouldnt there be enough nutriants in the soil (clay) anyway ?

Any suggestions would be grateful.

Newbie · #**2881** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 07:48 PM

Turned my compost heap today & mixed sludgy mess with shredded paper & wood chippings in an effort to rescue it (filled it with far too much grass clippings last year in my newbie cluelessness). Discovered a little family of mice living in there which i accidently disturbed, then spent the next 10 mins trying to rescue one of them from the jaws of my dog!

nick nack · #**2882** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 08:13 PM

Picked up 6 bags of manure from a stables, lovely stuff

Added 4 of them to one of my new raised beds(16x4) on top of a layer of cardboard (thanks Snadger) and covered it with an old carpet. Saving the other 2 for my spuds in containers.

Will be going back in a couple of weeks for some more

NN

middlefield · #**2883** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 08:22 PM

What great weather today

Almost finished the area for the first earlies, got a lot of tidying-up done. Laid a row of slabs and have another load ready for collection, this is going to be a permanent area for raspberries.

Came home (with a lovely size swede in-tow), had dinner and ordered raspberry canes online.

pigletwillie · #**2884** (**permalink**) 27-01-2008, 08:28 PM

Glorious weather again today. We weeded out a few raised beds, sorted out the double greenhouse on plot 1 and was amazed to see the cape gooseberries sprouting already in one half.

Several Lidl £3.99 fruit trees were planted and pruned as espaliers in a row at the front of the plot for fruit and as a windbreak. Also a great load of artichokes were lifted from 1 plant, some soup being made tomorrow methinks.

kentvegplot · #**2885** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 09:42 AM

What great weather this weekend (well, it was here in Kent

)

Decided to turn out all 4 'daleks' but compost rather wet and revolting in 2 - too much grass last year - so re-filled with additional paper/cardboard.

Started work on new layout of veg garden, which means dismantling existing raised beds (all the timber edges are completely rotten) and rebuilding into more usable sizes using recycled plastic Linkabord.

By Sunday eve had 2 4mx1m beds in their new positions, cardboard in and soil moved from old beds on top. Only 5 more to rebuild then......

Planted more onion seed, scarlet flowered broadies, a few cauliflower seeds. Onions and caulis have come into the house, as heater in ghouse playing up

Just have to finish the plan so that I know what goes where when the season starts in earnest

pigletwillie · #**2886** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 02:43 PM

Lifted leeks and parsnips and did some titivating and tidying up on the plots. Lots of sowing going on in the greenhouse this afternoon.

Flummery · #**2887** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 05:43 PM

Got the seville oranges boiling (whole - to cut up after cooking) so I'll finish off this batch of marmalade in the morning. Sowed some broad beans (the sutton) in modules in the greenhouse for succession - the autumn ones are about 8" high now. Sowed a few early jalapeno and big jim peppers on kitchen windowsill to try and steal a march on Spring.

TonyF · #**2888** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 06:02 PM

Spent the whole day cutting down trees between us and the neighbour's house. They're newbies and the previous owners just let oak trees/oaklets grow everywhere. So our previous owner was good and maintained the regulation hedge spacing, but our boundary is actually hidden by the hedge - French gardening laws!

Our new neighbour said it was ok with him as we already wanted to cut the trees - and they make his place dark and damp - and we could access them from his garden.

So today the gang turned up at 10, we cut 5 trees, 30 feet high, one had 6 x 6" diameter trunks and cleared about half the site. That was despite one tree being over my chalet/shed and the other being over our cave (wine store) both of which survived absolutely intact.

J can't do any gardening atm so she made chicken chasseur for us all, plus cheese (no alcohol tho, chain saws involved) plus pattiserie which I picked up with the bread before they arrived.

And I've got 4/5 stere of wood to dispose of which, if I sell them, will go for 40/50 euros a stere cos they're chene (oak).

A brilliant day and we're planning what we're going to be planting in the new potager we're making at the chateau!

bramble · #**2889** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 06:05 PM

Beautiful day today and yesterday. Sowed some more peas (Onward) sowed red spring onions, some salad leaves, about a dozen parsnips, if they come through will sow some more. Filled up a big tub with fine soil and left it in the greenhouse to warm up to sow some carrots in the next week. Am still picking carrots that were sown last autumn. Tidied up the garden from old flower branches. About 4 of my daffs have big fat buds on. What a lovely site.

sewer rat · #**2890** (**permalink**) 28-01-2008, 06:10 PM

Finally placed my seed orders today, though had a bit of trouble tracking down shallots ( I still have PW's shallot seeds that I harvested as well). Also had to substitute Sturon onions for the variety I would have liked - and that I grew last year - Jagro, which were just brilliant and really really tasty too.
So what did I order
JA's ,Broad Beans, Runner Bean, Beetroot, Cabbage x 5 varieties, Calabrese, PSB, Carrot, Celeriac, Kale, Swiss Chard, Leeks, Onion and Shallot sets, Peas, Radish, Rocket, Swede, Turnip.
I still have sufficient lettuce, tomato, cucumber, courgette, french bean and assorted herb seeds from last season to do this one.
Tonight I'm gonna start to seriously sort out my paperwork - VAT return time again.

bobleponge · #**2891** (**permalink**) 30-01-2008, 01:25 PM

Today whilst looking at the internet from the middle of the Sahara desert, I studied at length and in depth watering systems from water butts.
Chats and chiens are falling from our skies apparently and whilst there are many water butts collecting them, they are all a considerable distance from the veggie area. I know think I have worked out the answer and shall be putting it into practice when I get home, just as soon as the bits and pieces I've ordered online arrive.
L'eponge

bobleponge · #**2892** (**permalink**) 30-01-2008, 02:18 PM

Oh, and I also put a bid on a greenhouse on Ebay. I'm not saying which one in case anyone sneaks a bid on it.
If I get it, will mean a trip to UK to collect it, but can see the kids and visit some GC's for inspirational things to put in it.